Chicken mummy

[boscopup]

So... raise your hand if you started the chicken mummy and then thought "I have to keep changing this salt for WEEKS?!?!?" :lol:

 

I've changed it once since Saturday. I need to again, but I'm soooo not in the mood. And then I need more salt to change it any after that, as I only have 2 boxes of salt left (the directions said "several boxes of salt", which really wasn't helpful... I got 6).

 

My first grader probably isn't getting much out of this project, though we did have an interesting discussion about the processing of a chicken:

 

DS: "How did they get the heart out?"

Me: "They cut a hole in the chicken's butt right here and scooped it out!"

DS: "How did they get the lungs out?"

Me: "They scooped them out with the heart!"

DS: "Where is its head?"

Me: "They probably chopped it off to kill it."

 

It's a good thing my son lives on a farm and isn't squeamish about such topics. :tongue_smilie:

 

Is anyone else a slacker in the chicken mummy salt changing department? Did your chicken end up rotting, or did you give up and throw it out, or did you persist and end up with a mummy despite bad salt changing routine? :lurk5:

[lmrich]

I did not do the chicken mummy - GROSS! I was on crutches/wheelchair at the time and there was NO way I was going to deal with that. We did flood the Nile and make the pyramid out of the little bricks. I loved the ancients; she still has several of the costumes we made.

[NanceXToo]

I totally skipped the chicken mummy project. I still don't feel any guilt over that. LOL.

[UmMusa]

I just checked out a bunch of library books on mummies lolol

Nope, no chicken mummy in my kitchen. You are brave.

[Mallory]

Did you do a chicken or a cornish game hen?

 

We did the cornish game hen and hardly had to change the salt/soda mix at all, I think three times. After the first time, the length between switches slows way down.

 

I didn't think it was gross at all, at least not any grosser then getting a chicken ready to eat. We added lots of fresh herbs from our garden every time we changed the salt and it has always smelled nice.

[Lovedtodeath]

 

Chicken Mummy! You might enjoy this similar thread.

[truebluexf]

It's interesting to note that this is also exactly how they preserved meat in colonial times. We went to Jamestown Settlement recently (we're doing American History right now) and they actually do real preservation there. Every fall, they slaughter a pig, eat some immediately, and preserve the rest. They take the pork and have these HUGE bins of salt, like 3 feet high by 2 feet wide, with pork buried in it. They change the salt every so often. When we were there they were digging out year old pork! It can still be eaten, and lasts indefinitely. All they do is coat it with some ground pepper after it's salted to keep mice and bugs out of it. I thought it was super cool to see how they used to preserve meat (and how it is close to mummifying LOL).

[kalphs]

When we attempted "Chicken Tut" with a cornish hen our dog decided to give "Tut" a try.

Which promptly brought an end to our science experiment.

[Lovedtodeath]

I thought it was super cool to see how they used to preserve meat (and how it is close to mummifying LOL).

 

When we attempted "Chicken Tut" with a cornish hen our dog decided to give "Tut" a try.

Which promptly brought an end to our science experiment.

 

Okay, ew and ew!:lol: We did a pyramid instead*. It is in the Usborne Beginners Egyptians kit. That is also a great non-fiction picture book that covers a lot of ground, btw.

 

*It also takes care of the mummification objections that I have seen here... that mummification was not perfected in the old Kingdom of Egypt during the time of the pyramids, but actually goes better with the later times of King Tut.

[ScoutTN]

Glad you asked this!

I was just reading about the Chickyhotep in the AG last night as I am planning for the fall. The old thread was so helpful!

[Crafty Mathy Mom]

We mummified an apple instead. I couldn't have stomached the chicken. Instructions are here.

http://www.sciencekidsathome.com/science_experiments/mummy_experiment.html#more

[Amy Jo]

Did you do a chicken or a cornish game hen?

 

We did the cornish game hen and hardly had to change the salt/soda mix at all, I think three times. After the first time, the length between switches slows way down.

 

I didn't think it was gross at all, at least not any grosser then getting a chicken ready to eat. We added lots of fresh herbs from our garden every time we changed the salt and it has always smelled nice.

 

Good idea. I'm actually going to do this (bought the chicken). But I think we'll eat the chicken and I'll have to buy a game hen to mummify. Esp. since DH bought a 5+ pound chicken.

 

Thanks!

Amy

Edited January 28, 2011 by mtcougar832
spelling

[~Kirsten~]

Are you adding baking powder and baking soda to your salt mix? That definitely helps. I did have to change the salt quite a bit in the first two weeks, but after that, I probably only changed it two more times. So maybe 5 or 6 total changes? But we used a cornish hen.

 

Hang in there! It really is a cool project, and my daughter is still so proud of her Tut-HEN-khamen. :D

 

Plus, you gave me quite a chuckle with how the organs were removed. So thanks for that! :lol:

[d.g.]

We started the mummy project with a cornish game hen. I think we changed the salt/spices twice, then poor Chookmose I was forgotten in a bin in our laundry room. We haven't had any smell problems or really even any reminders it was there until the other day, when I realized it had been MONTHS and we should probably wrap the silly thing up and build it a "tomb". It's well and truly dessicated by now.

 

Definitely go for the game hen, they're much, much smaller and take less salt. Also...we soaked ours in a 1:1 water and rubbing alcohol mixture for an hour before we dried it off and started the mummification. I think it helped kill off a lot of the bacteria that otherwise would have made a stinky mess of the project. Just something to try...

[Lovedtodeath]

Are you adding baking powder and baking soda to your salt mix? That definitely helps.

Well, while we are on that subject, I might as well quote this very helpful post:

I had a good friend who used the salt-only method to "mummify" a chicken - she said it stank to high heaven and she gave up on it because she was going through so much salt she couldn't afford it anymore. I've actually been dying to try my recipe for years to see if it worked better because of all the chicken mummification horror stories I've read (or heard about in person)!

 

I know some recipes add the sodium BIcarbonate, but the key ingredient is the Natron itself - the Sodium Carbonate.

 

The recipe the museum gave me wasn't quite as high in Sodium Carbonate as the Wikipedia article suggests, but it seems to have worked quite well.

 

2 parts Washing soda (sodium carbonate)

2 parts Baking soda (sodium bicarobate)

1 part Salt (sodium chloride)

[DragonflyAcademy]

we did the apple mummy, instead....

[canadianmomtofour]

We are doing a cornish hen now. I think we are on week 4 or 5? I've lost track. I didn't think I would be squeamish, but I've been forcing dh to change the salt mixture the last couple of times, and I think he will have to finish the project for me! I wish I'd heard the apple idea BEFORE I started this! The kids are ridiculously excited about it so we have to finish it, but I REALLY don't want to. :tongue_smilie:

[~Kirsten~]

Well, while we are on that subject, I might as well quote this very helpful post:

And, let me just add that Borax is NOT the same as sodium carbonate. Ahem. Not that it stopped me from tossing some in there anyway. :lol: I had a really difficult time locating sodium carbonate, sadly. That would have been the easiest way to go, as far as I can tell.

[kalphs]

When we attempted "Chicken Tut" with a cornish hen our dog decided to give "Tut" a try.

Which promptly brought an end to our science experiment.

In the end we mummified fruit using an experiment from Mary Pope Osborne's book on Mummies.

[Lovedtodeath]

And, let me just add that Borax is NOT the same as sodium carbonate. Ahem. Not that it stopped me from tossing some in there anyway. :lol: I had a really difficult time locating sodium carbonate, sadly. That would have been the easiest way to go, as far as I can tell.

Yeah, borax does improve smell in my laundry though, so maybe it helped. lol The "washing soda" is right next to the borax in the laundry aisle of my Kroger. YMMV of course.

[KrissiK]

Yes, you do use a lot of salt and baking soda. But... that's what you do. We had a great time doing it, even though it was a lot of work. Definitely worth it. ANd it's not really thaaaaat gross. Plus, you do get a little more prestige around here (and everywhere else you go in the homeschooling community) if you can say, "Yeah.... we mummified a chicken!";)

[ScoutTN]

Three of DD's cousins heard about the chicken mummy and pestered my SIL until she promised that they could come over to "help" when we do it!

[boscopup]

Update: I finally changed the salt (should have changed it 2 days ago - oops!), and I want to thank the person that suggested using a container instead of a plastic bag!!! That was a fabulous idea! It really made things easier. I mixed part of the salt mixture in a bowl with a see-through plastic lid, got the chicken out of the bag, brushed the salt off, spooned the mixture into the inside of the chicken (DS1 did that), then stuck the chicken in the bowl and put some of the mixture on top of the chicken, then added the rest of the salt on top. DS2 got to do that part. He had fun. :D

 

Funny comment of the day from DS1, as we were doing the salt change:

 

"It smells like Bojangles chicken."

 

:lol:

 

It actually didn't smell like Bojangles chicken, but it didn't smell "bad" either. It certainly didn't smell like a chicken that's been sitting out for a week, so it appears to be working. We will keep going. I bought a couple boxes of salt at Sam's today ($0.98 for 4 lbs), and I have tons of baking soda. Just have one baking powder thing left, but I figure we can get away with baking soda and salt. I thought I had washing soda around here, but I seem to be out of that. I do have Borax that I could use.

 

Anyway, I think the bowl will be much easier. My big issue with last time was the fact that it was hard to get the chicken in and out of the bags, and then putting it back in, the inner bag got its zipper off track so it couldn't close.

 

Now to find a place to put this thing, because I really can't afford to lose the counter space for so many weeks. The top of the fridge might work now that it's in a pretty bowl with flowers on it. ;)

[~Kirsten~]

Update: I finally changed the salt (should have changed it 2 days ago - oops!), and I want to thank the person that suggested using a container instead of a plastic bag!!! That was a fabulous idea! It really made things easier. I mixed part of the salt mixture in a bowl with a see-through plastic lid, got the chicken out of the bag, brushed the salt off, spooned the mixture into the inside of the chicken (DS1 did that), then stuck the chicken in the bowl and put some of the mixture on top of the chicken, then added the rest of the salt on top. DS2 got to do that part. He had fun. :D

 

Funny comment of the day from DS1, as we were doing the salt change:

 

"It smells like Bojangles chicken."

 

:lol:

 

It actually didn't smell like Bojangles chicken, but it didn't smell "bad" either. It certainly didn't smell like a chicken that's been sitting out for a week, so it appears to be working. We will keep going. I bought a couple boxes of salt at Sam's today ($0.98 for 4 lbs), and I have tons of baking soda. Just have one baking powder thing left, but I figure we can get away with baking soda and salt. I thought I had washing soda around here, but I seem to be out of that. I do have Borax that I could use.

 

Anyway, I think the bowl will be much easier. My big issue with last time was the fact that it was hard to get the chicken in and out of the bags, and then putting it back in, the inner bag got its zipper off track so it couldn't close.

 

Now to find a place to put this thing, because I really can't afford to lose the counter space for so many weeks. The top of the fridge might work now that it's in a pretty bowl with flowers on it. ;)

Love it! :thumbup: Top of the fridge sounds great (ours lived on the counter, and that was not a good plan). I don't know, with flowers, could it be the table centerpiece? :tongue_smilie:

[boscopup]

I don't know, with flowers, could it be the table centerpiece? :tongue_smilie:

 

:lol: If I'd been drinking something, my computer screen would be soaked right now!

 

I probably better not have it down that low. I have large, raw fed dogs. :D

[Farrar]

Because I used to do this years ago when I was teaching, I had the benefit of doing it THREE times over the years. And let me tell you, I don't think the students and I really did anything different, but each time the process took different times, different numbers of changes, and stank different amounts. It... well... I never did figure that out.

[Lovedtodeath]

and stank different amounts.

:lol:Love this thread. Thanks for sharing.

[AFwife Claire]

Last year the unit I taught in our co-op was about ancient Egypt, and for our big 5th week unit-ending activity, I was the "owner" of a mummy-making shop. So I actually mummified not one but 2 chickens! One I started earlier, and that one ("King Cluck") I finished up, oiled, and wrapped in linen. He got placed in a gold (spray-painted) shoe box sarcophagus. The other one (A-hen-o-tep) I just mummified without wrapping him up, so the kids could feel and see what the mummified skin looked like. The chickens were big hits!

 

For my presentation, I talked through the process, showing my chickens, and then the kids practiced by "mummifying" bananas. They split open the skin and scooped out the innards. Then they stuffed them with cotton balls and wrapped them with toilet paper. I told all the other moms, "I mummified these chickens so no one else here has to!" LOL

[Steven]

We are nearly three weeks into mummifying the chicken. We opted for a cornish game hen. We mixed up the salt, baking soda, and baking powder mixture as specified (actually, the directions are rather poor--it would have helped if the activity guide had specified quantities in weights or cups rather than boxes and cans). We added a variety of spices into the mixture. I have changed the salt two times. The first time the salt was definitely moist, the second time, it was still pretty dry, except inside the bird.

 

I have not noticed any smell except the spices.

 

On the whole, I am glad we did it. My daughter really got into it. She put on an Egyptian costume with a Cleopatra mask, and made up a story about her father, Pharaoh Poulet VIII having died. She is the Princess/High Priestess Amose. She ground the spices, mixed the embalming salts, and washed the body with wine (actually a mixture of rubbing alcohol and cheap red wine). Then she helped me pour salt into the cavity. We put the bird in the bag, and she poured in the rest of the salt.

[msk]

Anyone who becomes a devotee of dead chicken projects might want to check out "Make Your Own Dinosaur out of Chicken Bones" by Christopher McGowan. My daughter isn't quite old enough for it yet, but I can hardly wait! My paleontologist friend tells me the mounting methods in it are exactly the ones he uses in our local museum.

[Capt_Uhura]

We're starting out cornish hen mummy today!

[----]

I completely failed to mention to my kids that mummifying a chicken was even possible. No thank you. Can't do it.

[RootAnn]

We did the Cornish Game Hen.

 

Rather, my husband helped the kids with mummifying the cornish game hen. He read the directions and knew what he was in for. The biggest thing he did that wasn't in the directions was that he didn't trust the salt to do all the drying for him. He used my hair dryer for a minute or two on the thing when he changed the salt.

 

It is still beautifully wrapped in linen & in our basement. I think we still have a container of the "mummy-making" salt-mix on a shelf down near it. I'll probably encourage him to do it again -- perhaps with a full-size chicken when we go back through ancients again in a couple of years.

 

But me do it? No way. :tongue_smilie:

[Janelless]

We did the Cornish Game Hen. Kept Queen Cluck as she was called by my dd in a double plastic bag. AND in a bucket between changes because we live in an apartment and have two extremely nosy cats. No smell. We loved the entire process. Did put Queen Cluck in the trash bin Pyramid as yes we live in an apartment and still have two VERY nosy cats. We would definitely do again. Was a lot of fun for both of us.